Over a period of two days and nights, Second Lieutenant Rainer lay in ambush with his platoon, whilst on operations in the Phuoc Tuy Province of South Vietnam. At 0730 hours on 3 June 1966, he left the ambush and was returning to the company base, approximately one thousand metres to the west.
Shortly afterwards, eight enemy were sighted three hundred metres to the south of the platoon. He immediately deployed his platoon with two sections forward, and crawling through the edge of a banana and rubber plantation, and under two wire fences, surprised and assaulted the enemy.
The platoon immediately came under heavy fire, however in a most aggressive manner, he led his men to the objective. The enemy were prepared to remain and fight, however when faced with such sustained fire and confident well led troops, they turned and fled. The contact resulted in three enemy being killed and two possibly wounded.